SHOCK! Tony Stewart's Very Bad Night!

The NASCAR world has been all abuzz with the news that Tony Stewart is expanding his future in NASCAR to take on the ownership role. Handing away a reported $35 million in equity, jailed car owner Gene Haas has given up 50% ownership in his team, enabling Tony Stewart to bring his own name and sponsors to the struggling organization. Indeed, today is the day he introduces his car number and his sponsors to the media and to the fans.

When Tony first entered the NASCAR scene as a driver, he carried a tremendous amount of stress and anger into his relationships with media and with the people he has had to deal with daily. He has had shoving matches with reporters, he frequently has on-track altercations with drivers, has been sanctioned and fined by his own sponsor, and lately has been using his Sirius program, Tony Stewart Live, to lambaste other drivers, reporters, and even NASCAR.

The media and fans have been speculating about Tony and his ownership skills. Many fans do not realize that Tony has already been a car owner, in the USAC world. In fact, he owns the midget cars driven by Tracy Hines and Levi Jones.

Tony attended a USAC race at O’Reilly Raceway Park last night. And as reported by The Herald Bulletin Tony had another display of temper.

Stewart, the two-time Sprint Cup champion, owns the midget cars of Tracy Hines and Levi Jones. Hines entered Thursday’s race as the points leader and was running in the top four when he brushed the outside wall on a restart on the eighth circuit

Hines’ crew attempted to change a right rear flat tire and get Hines back into the race before another restart. As the crew pushed the car to the front of the straightaway, a USAC official indicated they were too late.

That brought Stewart down pit lane to voice his displeasure with the decision. Stewart’s actions first knocked the headset from the official’s head, and he then shoved the official.

It was unknown if USAC officials would issue any penalties against Stewart.

Once again, Tony will be facing potential sanctions by racing officials, and he must be wondering if there will be a lawsuit springing up from the person who was shoved. Tony is quite familiar with this type of lawsuit, having been the subject of several. While many of those lawsuits were considered frivolous, a few were based in fact.

Tony as a NASCAR owner/driver will be under even more stress. NASCAR media will be hoping to see Tony in those pressure-cooker situations, and will be poised with pen in hand ready to write about the latest antics of Mr. Stewart. He is always good for a story, whether good or bad!

Three David's Battling NASCAR's Goliath

Three David's, all battling the Goliath of racing at NASCAR's pinnacle. David Ragan, David Reutimann, and David Gilliland. In their first year, they were all vilified by their more experienced peers, but are now earning respect in the garage. They all have some very strong similarities, going far beyond the common first names.



Family Legacy - Each David comes from a family rich in racing heritage.

• David Ragan's father, Ken, had 50 Cup race starts over a career spanning 8 years. His best finish was 11th at Talladega in 1984. He also managed 600 Racing, the Harrisburg plant that produces Legends, Bandoleros and Thunder Roadsters.
  

• David Gilliland's father Butch is also well-known on the short track, but his history is primarily West Coast. Winner of the 1997 Winston West Championship, Butch also raced 12 Craftsman Truck races and 10 Races at the Winston Cup level.
  

• David Reutimann's father is known to the world as Buzzie. Buzzie is shown as having only raced in one 'Grand National' race back in 1963, but that was a top ten finish! He is best known for his hard-charging style on the short tracks. There are four generations of racers in the Reutimann family.
  

The history of the David's:

• Ragan worked in the shop of Dash series driver Cam Strader, and also prepared the late model cars that he was to drive in 2002. Ragan worked countless hours preparing the cars that Strader would race to the 2001 series Championship.
  

• Gilliland grew up working on the cars owned by his father. Indeed, at the age of 20, Gilliland was awarded the Champion Crew Chief of the Year award after his father became the 1997 NASCAR Winston West Champion.
  

• Reutimann's whole family history is nothing but working on cars. Generations have raced out of the Zephryhills Florida garage, where the 4th generation is now hitting the tracks.
  

As much as they are similar, there are also some noticeable differences.

Age
Ragan is the youngster of the group. Born in 1985, he is certainly the youngest when stacked up to Reutimann' age of 38 and Gilliland's 32 years.

How they got started:

• After a handful of races in the upper levels, Ragan was able to snag a ride through Jack Roush's driver tests.

• After spending several competitive years in the late model series on the West Coast, Gilliland entered just a couple of truck races, and a limited Busch schedule, before he snatched the checkered flag at Kentucky, thereby catapulting him into the Robert Yates ride.

• Reutimann worked his way up from Late models, then drove a handful of Busch series races before driving for Darrell Waltrip in the Truck series. That most certainly opened the door into his ride for Darrell's brother Michael, where he is currently driving both the Nationwide and the Sprint Cup series.
  

Their current Cup rides:

• Ragan is driving the #6 car for Roush-Fenway Racing. He sits 17th in the points.

• Gilliland is driving in the newly rebuilt Yates Racing #38 ride, and is sitting 22nd in the points.

• Reutimann is driving the #44 car for Michael Waltrip Racing. He is currently at 27th in the points.

Crew Chiefs

• Ragan - 20 year veteran Jimmy Fennig

• Gilliland - 1st year Cup CC, one year in Busch as a Crew Chief, Cully Barraclough

• Reutimann - 11 year Cup veteran Ryan Pemberton

Equipment

• Ragan- state of the art from Roush-Fenway Racing
  

• Gilliland-struggled last year in equipment that was not drivable by even the likes of team mate Ricky Rudd. Now working the the equivalent of a start-up organization, running partly unsponsored. Yates Racing is buying cars and services from Roush-Fenway.
  

• Reutimann-struggling last year, not only in a start up team, but the first year for the Toyota first year attempt in NASCAR.

All three drivers are talented. All three are being noted as up and coming drivers. And all three have shown marked improvement in the last year. All three, eventually, will show that they can compete on equal footing with the Goliath's of NASCAR. It will be worth watching how their careers progress.

Meandering among the Loudon Marbles.

This year's first race at Loudon is over. Finally!

• I fully understand that the enjoyment of watching a race goes hand in hand with the results of my particular driver, For instance, I thoroughly enjoyed watching Sonoma, and I hated watching today's race at Loudon. And yes, it depended totally on how my driver fared.

• Major belated props to David Gilliland for last week's podium finish at Infineion Raceway. He impressed fans and peers alike, receiving accolades from the likes of Kyle Busch, Tony Stewart, and Jeff Gordon, along with a host of media writers and broadcasters. He deserved every bit of the praise.

• This week was not so good for either Yates Racing team! The COT proves that it is very fickle, and if the set-up is slightly off, the driver and crew chief will spend the entire race chasing the track, and chasing the set up.

• Add Jamie McMurray to the Hate List for the Junior Nation. While the rear-ending of Jr seems to have been pointless, many fans forget there is a tremendous amount of things that drivers have to react to, including suddenly closing in on a car that comes down to try and pit. I firmly believe that McMurray would never have purposely taken his own car out of the race in that manner.

• The 4th of July Fireworks happened a week early, when Kyle Busch and Juan Pablo Montoya had their little tiff on track. Kyle was quite amusing in his post-race interview, with his air of injured dignity. Juan Pablo, however, boldly admitted he wrecked Kyle on purpose. After visiting with his new friends in the NASCAR hauler, he left with a 2 lap penalty. (David Gilliland's fans thank you for that JPM! It gave us an extra sorely needed finishing spot!)

• Sadly, the shenanigans of the above two wrecks will take away from the win of Kurt Busch. In fact, I am sure there will be discussion that the top 6 cars did not deserve their finishes, as they never ran up front during the race. However, each of those cars played their strategy brilliantly, and therefor deserve their finishes just as ANY other fuel race. ALL races are, to a degree, fuel management races. Sadly, the controversies of the two wrecks will over-shadow any joy for the fans of those drivers.

• Oh, and major props to Casey Mears. He got the word last week that he was the odd man out at Hendrick Motorsports. And of course, this week he runs the best race of the season.

• Silly Season has turned into a huge merry-go-round. The NASCAR World is watching for Tony Stewart to declare his intentions, so that we can watch all of the other dominoes fall in place. The only true domino I wish to see would be the ones of sponsors declaring their faith in Yates Racing, to ensure the continuation of the organization in the sport.

Marketing Magic!

NASCAR is a brand name that has its foundation built on the backs of sponsors. NASCAR has their official sponsors, the tracks have their sponsors, each series has a sponsor, and of course the drivers have their sponsors.

Every week, from the first interview at the first practice session, (between the sponsoring advertising in commercials) to the very last shot in Victory Lane, the drivers recite the list all of the sponsor decals residing on their cars.

Fortune 500 firms employ teams of marketing experts to determine the right fit for their company, and usually have at least one corporate representative in attendance at every race. However, brilliant marketing is all about timing. A few examples are shown here!

The simplest example is the announcement that the #31 AT&T Chevrolet will carry a special paint scheme for the American athletes participating in the Beijing Olympics. While 100% honorable in their intent and the focus they are putting on the Olympics, one has to remember that AT&T is also an official sponsor for the Olympics. And the timing? The car will race on Sunday at Pocono, and on Monday, Steve Jobs is expected to announce the latest and greatest version of the iphone! And the exclusive carrier for the iphone would be....yes, AT&T!

Another example from the recent past is couched within the announcement that Gordon, DuPont re-up through 2010. While a reader who only catches headlines or the first few paragraphs may assume that Gordon had his contract extended, along with Dupont, the truth is, Jeff Gordon has a lifetime contract with Rick Hendrick. The truth is that Dupont is the only entity signing an extension. The timing? The announcement was timed for the Dover race, as the headquarters for Dupont reside in Wilmingon Delaware! This is a wonderful announcement to present to all of the VIP's that are sitting in the cushy Dupont Bridge hovering over the track.

Major headlines were made recently, when it was revealed that Elliott Sadler agreed to a two year extension with Gillette Evernham Motorsports. This announcement was brought out just in time for the Best Buy 400 at Dover. Sadler's sponsor, Best Buy, also jumped on board to support the special charity that is close to Sadler's heart, Autism Speaks.org. The planets all aligned to have Sadler sign that contract just in the nick of time for the race! Or did they? If one goes back to April of 2008, you could read that Lee Spencer broke the story of Sadler's contract extension hidden in this article prior to the Phoenix race.
(Sadly, the planets did not align to give the Best Buy sponsors more than 19 laps of their car racing at the race!)

There is nothing wrong in marketing. In fact, the marketing that is performed in the name of NASCAR is what keeps our sport moving. It is fun,however, to look behind the actual press release to see where the marketing is hidden. Sometimes, you will find some jewels of knowledge! Or, should I say GEMs? At any rate, Brilliant!